Alex Hutchinson is a science journalist, former physicist, and an author. Why are humans wired to explore? We’re naturally drawn to the unknown, but that curiosity can sometimes lead us off course. So how do you design a life that channels exploration and dopamine in the right direction without going too far? Expect to learn why humans are drawn to explore and what the neuroscience behind exploration does to us in, the truth as BS behind dopamine and how to design your life to maximize dopamine, how uncertainty plays into our drive to explore, if curiosity and exploration are the same, the importance of play, what separates the elite athletes compared to the average person in terms of mental capabilities, and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get the Whoop 4.0 for free and get your first month for free at https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom Get $350 off the Pod 4 Ultra at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get a 20% discount on Nomatic’s amazing luggage at https://nomatic.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
from episode 46 to episode 916, something like that.
You had to do 900 more people before you were ready for me again.
It's very important. That was the level of tank emptying that I went through just having a straight up conversation with you. It's great. I was saying before we started, it's really cool to watch the arc of people who you get to collaborate with and how that sort of progresses over time.
Yeah, I mean, exactly back at you. I've been thinking a lot in the days leading up to this interview of like, wow, you know, 2018, things were very different for both of us. And the conversation I had with you in 2018 was such a pleasant surprise. And I'm glad to see that other people thought that your interview abilities were as good as I did.
Yeah, well, we'll see if I can keep you... No pressure, no pressure. I was going to say, so the pleasant uncertainty today abound. We'll see what I can achieve. You've got interested in explorers. Why? What's interesting about explorers?
Yeah, I mean, what's not interesting about explorers? Yeah, so where did this book start? I mean... Since I was like five years old, I loved the idea of pretending that I was an explorer in the woods discovering things. But really, I think this book started actually around the time we spoke, after my last book came out.
I wrote a book about endurance in 2018, and this is not intended as a gratuitous plug for that book, but the book did well, and it was the culmination of about... 10 years, let's say of really focusing in on the science of endurance, really narrowing and narrowing on an ever decreasing specialty. Um, and it did well enough that I was like, Hey, cool.
I can be the science of endurance guy for the rest of my life. I can coast on, you know, I should start working on endure to, you know, revenge of the science of endurance. And there's a lot of reasons that that would have been a really smart thing to do. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it actually didn't sound that interesting to me. And I got interested in my lack of interest.
I wondered, why do I have this pull to do something new? And it connected with a lot of other areas of my life. Why, when I go on vacations, do I like to try and get as far off the beaten track as I can? Why am I always pulled to the unknown? And so I decided, actually, I'd kind of like to know the answers to those questions. Maybe I'll research that and turn that into my next book.
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